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snappy
04-29-2004, 11:15 AM
When was the slowest day you've spent at Disneyland?
What did you do?
How long were the lines?
Why was it so slow?
(Just a few questions to start this thread, add your own comments) :)

sediment
04-29-2004, 11:23 AM
By slow, I assume you mean "least crowded"?
Been there for private parties. Cast Member holiday party is pretty slow.
Been there on Labor Day, before the AP got popular.
Haven't seen a slow day since 1992.

Ghoulish Delight
04-29-2004, 11:26 AM
Christams Eve, somewhere around 1990 or 91. It was POURING rain. So much that when we left, the whole parking lot was under 2 inches of water. The longest line in the entire park was Space Mountain, and that didn't reach out the door. That was actually the first day I ever rode Space Mountain.

Gemini Cricket
04-29-2004, 11:35 AM
Snappy, whenever I read a thread that you start, my mind says your name with Mr. Burns's voice. It was that 'Simpsons' episode where Burns sells the power plant to 'the Germans'. Burns talks to an alligator puppet named 'Snappy'. "Well, Snappy..." Anyway, I thought I'd share, because I'm just weird like that.
:fez:

Slowest day was back in the early nineties some time. I was still at school at Chapman University and went to DL on an off day. I think it was in November a week before Thanksgiving.

There were no lines for anything. Maybe there was a line for 'Peter Pan', but it seems like there's always a line for that.

We went on POTC, Space Mtn and Splash. Each time we got back to the loading area, the CMs asked us if we wanted to go again. I'm not sure if they do that any more but it was kind of a neat experience.

I think it was so slow because people were holding off their trips until Thanksgiving weekend and Xmas vacation.

This day was a sad attempt at riding everything all in one day. We got tired of doing it and got stalled in Fantasyland and just gave up. :D

The Mouse Is Back
04-29-2004, 12:03 PM
I'm not sure of the date, but it was sometime during the Spring in the early 90s. I actually have pictures I took, just because I knew no one would believe me when I described how empty it was (if I had a scanner and any clue where the pics were I'd post them).

Every ride except a few in Fantasyland were walk-ons. I took a pic inside SM because there was NO ONE at the turnstile at the bottom! Pirates was so empty we not only had our own boat, but the boats in front of us and behind us were empty. The walkway into Tomorrowland had zero people - another pic of that! The Adventureland walkway had just a few. The shops were deserted.

Why it was so empty, I'll never know. It was really nice weather, so the lack of guests must have been some once in a lifetime fluke.

If only it would happen again some time!



-Allegra-

Not Afraid
04-29-2004, 12:16 PM
We were at DL for some unremembered purpose and it was a cold, cold, windy day. We ended up in Toon Town, being the among the only people in that land. We were able to actually LOOK at Mickey and Minie's houses in detail. We spent about 2 hours in Toon Town just looking around. It was cool!

DisneyDustin22
04-29-2004, 12:35 PM
December of 2002, I believe it was around the 15th or so, right before the holiday breaks started for schools and what not. Anyway it was a weekday and I expected some crowds but it ended up raining out of control at noon and stayed like that well until 4 or 5 pm. Some walkways in the park were actually closed because of flooding. I remember an area next to Mr Toad under so much water, all you saw was the top half of a stroller sticking up. Quite funny. They had cones and ropes from Fantasmic/Parades to rope the areas off. By 5pm the place was pretty much dead, and by dead, I mean you could walk past Pirates and hear people scream on Splash. It was that dead and that quiet. It was VERY peaceful, despite the rain, Id say there was a couple hundred die-hards in the park including myself running from ride to ride. CM's were allowing people to stay on rides if nobody was waiting to board your boat/car. Splash oddly enough had the longest line even in the rain! Though it was only like 5 min. But everything else was a walk right on and stay on if you choose. The only bad part was every ride seat was wet from the person before, which didnt matter because everyone was soaked! I remember riding Space and the water from the poncho on the person in front of me was flying off and hitting me in the face. Lots of fun, Lots of water, very cold, but well worth it. Records were probably set that day on how many rides people did in one day.

bassett1976
04-29-2004, 12:56 PM
The walkway into Tomorrowland had zero people - another pic of that!
-Allegra-

Doesn't this happen now???

olegc
04-29-2004, 01:36 PM
February 1999 - just got my AP two weeks prior. Walked in to spend a half day on my own. It was around 11am. and I swear I was the only person in the middle of Town Square for a brief moment. Then went to the emporium and struck up a conversation with two employees - for 45 minutes (can you tell no one was shopping). It was a little cold that day, slightly overcast - but wow...

The other times were the old Hughes Aircraft private parties. These might not count since the last one they had (1996 or 97?) many rides and restaurants were closed. It was the last week of September (we made it into a birthday celebraiton for my brother). I remember having to walk all the way from splash mountain to main street to see the first sign of real food being served. Not even French market was open. But - the park was all ours. Felt like DCA! :~D

DigitalLizard
04-29-2004, 01:44 PM
In May 2001 we won a trip on the radio...
we went the Sunday and Monday before
Memorial Day weekend...

We practically walked RIGHT ON everything!
There was maybe ONE car ahead of us worth
of people on both Indy and Screamin...
this was our very first time at DCA...
We rode Mullholland twice or three times...
it was great! Even at Paradise Pier Hotel
there weren't that many people around!
Splash we might have waited 10 minutes for
if that!

But this was also RIGHT AFTER DCA opened,
and there wasn't an electrical parade until
July of that year. Plus it was the weekend
before the holiday!

It sprinkled slightly one morning... but
by no means got us really wet at all!

That was the one single trip in the last
25 years that I have been able to ride
everything atleast once that I wanted to
ride!

:fez:

davebert4
04-29-2004, 01:46 PM
a day or two after the Northridge earthquake, almost no one in the park! There was no line anywhere and for the majority of rides, we were allowed to just stay on and ride as much as we wanted :D

Ponine
04-29-2004, 01:50 PM
The 4th of July 1990

We let half of the River Belle staff go by lunch...
my roomates were on Storybook Land and Village Haus, we were all scheduled to work till 6pm, all off by lunch.

Changed, went back into the park... dead as a doornail. For some reason they had thought attendance would be heavy and enveryone had stayed away.
We wandered around, waited for our boyfriends to get off work, wandered around with them, rode rides... we back on the roof of the apartment for fireworks.
I dont remember a whole lot about that day in detail, except that it was the day I learned not to wear polka dots under a white tank top in a black light ride. :rolleyes:

Chemmech
04-29-2004, 02:04 PM
Back on April 29, 1991, during the LA riots I spent the day at Disneyland. It was very uncrowded, sorry but I can't recall what I did at the park that day.

Big Dog
04-29-2004, 02:34 PM
The slowest day for me at Disneyland was quite busy yet the lines where very short, well for me and my Mom anyways. My mom broke her right leg and left ancle in summer of 91 and had a wheel chair so all of the rides had no wait for us. Since then I have gone with other friends that require SAPs (Special Assistant Pass) but the lines have never been that short.

The slowest day at Six Flags Magic Mountain was the day before thanksgiving last year. All of the rides where walk on for the front row except for X.

TDBearGrrl
04-29-2004, 03:29 PM
January 20, 2004. A great day at the park. It was my birthday trip and I finally got to ride all of Fantasyland. We also got to do Micky & Minnie's houses and took tons of pictures. There were probably about 1/3 as many people there as on the preceding Saturday - which was my birthday party day (and another trip to Disneyland). Good times - good times.

cemeinke
04-29-2004, 06:08 PM
We were at DL for some unremembered purpose and it was a cold, cold, windy day. We ended up in Toon Town, being the among the only people in that land. We were able to actually LOOK at Mickey and Minie's houses in detail. We spent about 2 hours in Toon Town just looking around. It was cool!
Me too - two years ago in February, middle of the week (school day), no kids in Toontown. Most fun I ever had there, and first time I really got to explore Mickey & Minnies. It was also fun playing with all the interactive stuff and not have to worry about sharing, or spoiling other children's fun.

Photographer
04-29-2004, 07:01 PM
One of the slowest days I've ever been was Jan. 2001. My best friend was in town visiting. We went through the entire park in like 4 or 5 hours and that includes a show at the Golden Horseshoe. It was insanely empty. What a great day! :)

SCUBAbe
04-29-2004, 07:47 PM
The slowest time I was there is when DCA first opened during the rainy season and bad reviews. It was so slow we would get off screamin and hop right back on. The trains were not even full. We could go on the sun wheel and they wouldn't even make us get off....walk on the river rise and soarin...it was so cool. We were going once a week back then. Disneyland was slow also, but not as slow. There were 15 to 20 min. posted wait times, but it was more like 10min. We didn't use the fast pass all day and still rode everything we wanted. We even went on a few fantasyland rides and we never ride those.. it was also the first year we had our AP's..:)

DisneyFan25863
04-29-2004, 07:50 PM
Today was EMPTY. 5-10 min. lines for EVERYTHING. Longest I waited was 15 for Thunder.

JoeCanadian
04-29-2004, 10:04 PM
December of 2002, I believe it was around the 15th or so, right before the holiday breaks started for schools and what not. Anyway it was a weekday and I expected some crowds but it ended up raining out of control at noon and stayed like that well until 4 or 5 pm. Some walkways in the park were actually closed because of flooding. I remember an area next to Mr Toad under so much water, all you saw was the top half of a stroller sticking up. Quite funny. They had cones and ropes from Fantasmic/Parades to rope the areas off. By 5pm the place was pretty much dead, and by dead, I mean you could walk past Pirates and hear people scream on Splash. It was that dead and that quiet. It was VERY peaceful, despite the rain, Id say there was a couple hundred die-hards in the park including myself running from ride to ride. CM's were allowing people to stay on rides if nobody was waiting to board your boat/car. Splash oddly enough had the longest line even in the rain! Though it was only like 5 min. But everything else was a walk right on and stay on if you choose. The only bad part was every ride seat was wet from the person before, which didnt matter because everyone was soaked! I remember riding Space and the water from the poncho on the person in front of me was flying off and hitting me in the face. Lots of fun, Lots of water, very cold, but well worth it. Records were probably set that day on how many rides people did in one day.

I was at Disneyland around the same time :D FUN times. But yeah, the day we left was around when schools typically let the kids out. So it went from mildy busy to *BAM* all out craziness all within a days difference.

MetalliKitty
04-29-2004, 11:26 PM
Waaay back in the early to mid-eighties, my mom would take me out of school for my birthday nearly every year, and we would go to Disneyland.

I can't state a specific year, but it was always on May 13th...I just have great memories of multiple walk-up entries to nearly every single ride there.

(I know what I am doing from now on if it is a very very rainy day - I am heading out to DLR!!!)

oregonzooron
04-29-2004, 11:53 PM
March, 1980.... I was at school at Pepperdine.

It had rained heavily, and there was flooding throughout the area. Schools were closed, and on Wednesday that week, my roommate and I decided to go to the park. There was a light drizzle in the morning, which kept the locals away, but by around noon it cleared. There was a corporate party that evening, so people stayed away that afternoon as well. There couldn't have been more than two or three thousand people there all day.

Space Mountain had just opened, and two weeks earlier my roommate had spent almost three hours in line for it. That day we rode five times in succession in about forty minutes. We were running throught the line.

see you at the zoo

ron

tstan70
04-30-2004, 05:49 AM
November 2002. we arrived for Veteren's day weekend on thursday afternoon(vets day on Monday that year). We had planed to just walk through Downtown Disney, but our two year old started going nuts when we walked by the entrance to Disneyland without going in. Disneyland was only open for another hour and a half, but we decided to go in anyway. The place was completely dead. It had rained earlier in the day and it probably scared a lot of people away - even though the evening was clear and beautiful weather. IASW holiday was opening up the next day as well.

We walked down mainstreet, throught the castle, waited perhaps 5 minutes for Peter Pan and then continued to ride anything we wanted without any wait at all. The coolest was riding POTC. We were the only 3 people on the boat and couldn't see any boats ahead of us or behind us. It was creepy going through the caverns and I even got a bit spooked. When we walked out of DL down Mainstreet, there were perhaps only 100-150 people on Mainstreet.

It was the best hour and a half I have ever spent at Disneyland

CoasterMatt
04-30-2004, 06:20 AM
The slowest day I can recall off hand, was September 11, 2002. I went with a coworker, and we didn't wait in line for ANYTHING. There was a special ceremony in late afternoon (all attractions shut down, it was quite moving).

LSPoorEeyorick
04-30-2004, 07:15 AM
We went on a Saturday in mid-March last year, and it was so ridiculously rainy the entire day that everyone had stayed away. We rode Mulholland several times in a row and they didn't even make us get out of the car. My bit of advice-- if it rains at DL, it's a glorious empty park, but if it rains at WDW, all you have is a park full of soggy, miserable people. Surely speaks to the difference in clientele (local v. tourist.)

It was really quite empty early in the day on the Saturday before Halloween last year, due to the forest fires. There was hardly any wait for anything, but there were several guests in gas masks. Creepy. Apocalyptic DL. Once you got across the berm, the wind wasn't so bad, but oy, the tram ride stung our eyes and our lungs pretty badly.